#well sort of...

[murphysletsdraw]

I really love the texture in your paintings!! I also use gouache but getting a nice texture with clean lines is something I've struggled with, do you have tips or specific techniques you use?

Thank you!!

Thank you so much!! I'd love to help - I'm self taught wrt painting so I have no idea if my approach will make sense to anyone else. I'll tell you what I do and why and you pick and choose whatever (if any) of my thoughts might be helpful ^^ I find that zooming in close on my subject makes textures much easier to capture, because more detail can be included without the picture looking noisy. It also saves me from having to make so many decisions (what to include, what to leave out, how to simplify and just suggest texture), but tackling every challenge at once is not a good way to learn anything. Maybe stick to close ups, or extreme close ups, to practice your textures, and then practice making judgement calls on what to include and what to leave out! Both parts are important, but they are somewhat separate concerns (IMO) I go over most areas of a painting many, many times. I build up many layers of paint, re-wet the area to blend them together, paint over it if I change my mind about something... Any "clean" line I make is often made up of 10+ strokes. I kind of creep up on detail, instead of trying to get it perfect once - I just find that the nature of the paints respond better to that. (And my hands often tremble, so that has to be accounted for) For example, the white highlights at the edges of these leaves I repainted I don't know how many times - I only made the decision to stop once I realized I was getting caught up in the joy of those movements of the wrist....

Because you can cover up areas well (at least if you cover with many layers), AND you can re-wet the paint to blend it or shape it differently, I find gouache very forgiving and I rarely start over a piece. A lot of times this messing around will bring up something fun I didn't expect, too! So I don't approach gouache like water colours, or expect a smooth surface on the paper, or paint in a style that requires anything to look good on the first stroke of the brush.

^^^ those are my palettes. I don't clean them... ever... I just wet my brush to loosen the pigment and add paint as I need it. I started working like this because I didn't feel I had the money to spend on paint, and then I built my techniques around that as I learned. So I rarely premix my paints, I usually pick whatever is closest and then mix colours on the paper. That means my focus isn't on getting the colour right, but on getting the values right. When gouache dries, it looks dull, so you have to over-shoot the mark wrt to values - make your darks darker and brights brighter. Go bold! I'll give some examples

^^^ with this painting, I think I succeeded wrt textures and values (and largely because of that, colours). I found this log in a big bush, so the light was very dappled under all those leaves. I added lots of small, very bright strokes on the bark where the sunlight landed the strongest, and kept most of the rest dark and flat-ish.

I initially added a lot of detail to the bark even in those dark areas, but then painted over them to lead the eye to the brighter areas. But since gouache doesn't give GREAT coverage, you can still see small brush strokes in there that add some texture. So it's rarely important to get things right on the first try! I think these ^^^ progress pictures do a pretty good job of showing how I tend to go back and forth on how much detail/contrast to add in any one area...

^^^ I'm not so satisfied with this painting in hindsight. My usual approach of mixing on my "canvas", lots of layering and trial and error looks muddy here and detracts from, rather than adds to, the result. The white flowers should be more uniform, bright and clean in colour, with shade added sparingly and with precision. The reds, oranges and yellows needed to be mixed fresh on a clean palette, because those were supposed to be the stars here and yellow is the most finicky colour, it can't take a beating like blue can... but I digress. The textures suffer for the same reason. Each individual flower has too much detail, too much texture, and they cancel each other out. My last piece of insight/advice is: approach textures like play. Like finding bunnies in clouds, textures suggest things, and that game of association or single-player-telephone is where you'll find YOUR approach to stylizing what you see, and how you'll share YOUR interpretation/imagination of the world with us.

^^^ the original mushrooms didn't literally have those colours, or those swoops and dots... but I saw them there, and I brought them out and exaggerated them, because I used my brush to "play mushrooms". It wasn't exactly conscious decisions, either - I didn't decide to make this shape and not that shape, I didn't look at anyone else's style or mannerisms. If it's difficult to access that confidence to play on a subconscious level, make up some exercises to bring it out consciously. DON'T go looking at other people's choices and try to incorporate them into your own "style". "Style" is only interesting when it's an expression of someone's vision, and everyone has to explore their own vision. Inspiration from other artists is most useful when it reminds you of just how much is permitted, how far you can push the boat out. I think the same goes for learning techniques from other artists. My number one piece of advice for art generally is to divide your time into just learning (practicing techniques, following guides, making studies) and just making (sitting down to create and play, with or without a plan, entering flow as quickly as possible and shutting up your inner critic wrt execution). And that goes for the details, too - if you find someone who's art you like, who can explain how they work with textures in a step-by-step way (and I might make a guide like that, but that'll have to be another day ^^), by all means try out their methods. But when you're CREATING, try not to stop and think, try not to aspire, and try not to lean too hard on other people's methods. So! That was maybe not super straight-forward or strictly on topic, but it's the best advice I can give off the cuff! If there's interest, I'd be happy to sit down and analyze my own decision making when I paint and then I'll be better able to make a how-to guide of "first this, then that". But for now, I hope these thoughts are useful, and thanks for getting me thinking on such an interesting subject!!!

[plagueislost]

there is a voice inside my head that whispers “wing au” every time i join a new fandom. it is currently winning.

EDIT: made an update to bruce’s design!

[owlpero]

free will is all about headcanoning your faves as autistic

[infizero-draws]

drawing deltarune every day until chapter 3&4 drop ✨(day 101)

childhood sweethearts

[liquidstar]

If my mom sees a significant amount of blood she gets lightheaded, and has fainted on some occasions. Once it happened when we were kids, I wasn't there to witness it but I heard the story from my dad. Basically my brothers, around 7 or 8 at the time, were playing outside while my mom was making their lunch, and she accidentally cut her finger. It wasn't anything serious, but it drew a fair bit of blood and she passed out. My dad saw this and rushed over, but he didn't really know what to do so he just sort of started slapping her to wake her up (not recommended, but he had no idea and panicked)

At that exact moment my brothers both came in from playing, and all they saw was our mom unconscious on the floor and our dad slapping her. So, like, without even saying a word to each other they both just INSTANTLY start whaling on him, like, full blown attack mode to defend our mom. Which obviously didn't help the situation, but she did wake up and everything was fine.

Now our dad says that he's actually really glad they attacked him over what they thought was going on, because it means he raised good boys. And I still think that's true, they're very good boys.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The Wizard Cowboy War (Wizboys VS Cowards) continues on.

[shblackwoodart]

idk why he's dying in a swamp don't ask me

[egophiliac]

bring back zooterkins, the best 17th-century swear word

I don't normally do Just Characters Swearing, but. ...this kind of wrote itself and then wouldn't leave my head. it comes from both a piece of character-writing advice that has always stuck with me, and also my conviction that Leona is 1000% funnier as a character if his dialogue has to stay G-rated. let Kalim say fuck, but don't let Leona say bastard.

(I'm sorry)

[ink-the-artist]

house tour :)

bonus art, lossy versions of the first 2 gifs

[chiquilines]

As mentioned in the previous post, i have lost my entire mind

[stil-lindigo]

ARTISTS FOR PALESTINE 🇵🇸 - On the 6th and 9th of March, I'll be doing art requests on stream with other notable artists to raise money for Operation Olive Branch and the PCRF.

I'm incredibly lucky to be counting quite a few big names in the roster, including known Jesus and Odysseus enthusiast @wolfythewitch, the extraordinary fanartist @denimcatfish, and the incredibly talented @troubledminnesotan, as well as Lilypichu from OfflineTV.

You'll be able to watch the streams on the day of the event either on my twitch channel here, or via the links provided by the artists below.

Lilypichu

Cuptoast

Akairosu_

Sevvanto

Wolfythewitch

[bellaciao-ciao-ciao]

[pleasureprose]

-I don't want to be here

-You exist here

[sylvrndoodles]

[chrisrin]

all my behind-the-scenes concept work and such for the HGCZ! i had a blast working on it all.

check out my finished piece here, and check out @hotguycomiczine for the full zine!

[eats-a-berry]

i wasn't sure exactly what i thought adult gideon should be doing, but i DO quite like the triple combination of cowboy-biker, drag queen, and used car salesman at the same time. she's always a busy person!